Summary Terrorist bombing Crew 9 Survivors 0 Survivor 0 | Passengers 79 Injuries (non-fatal) 0 Date 8 September 1974 Fatalities 88 (all) Passenger count 79 | |
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Similar TWA Flight 514, TWA Flight 840 hijacking, Pan Am Flight 806, TWA Flight 840 bombing, Pan Am Flight 812 | ||
Twa flight 841 1974
On September 8, 1974, a Boeing 707-331B (registered N8734) operating as TWA Flight 841 from Tel Aviv to New York City via Athens and Rome crashed into the Ionian Sea, killing all aboard. After stopping for 68 minutes in Athens, it departed for Rome. About 30 minutes after takeoff, the plane crashed into the Ionian Sea. The out-of-control aircraft was observed by crew on the flight deck of Pan Am flight 110. They watched the aircraft execute a steep climb, followed by the separation of an engine from the wing and the death spiral. All 79 passengers and nine crew members were killed. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the plane was destroyed by a bomb hidden in the cargo hold. The detonation of the bomb destroyed the systems responsible for operating the plane's control surfaces, causing the plane to pitch up until it stalled and dove into the ocean.
Contents
Background
Since the ousting of the PLO from Jordan, following the Jordanian-Palestinian civil war, the Palestinian military organizations made South Lebanon into headquarters, enlisting militants from Palestinian refugee camps. South Lebanon was also referred to as Fatahland, due to the almost complete control of Fatah and other military Palestinian organizations over this officially Lebanese area, which they used to stage attacks against Israel, mainly targeting civilians, and to engage in international airflight terror campaign.
Events
The airline's Tel Aviv office said 49 passengers boarded the plane there for Rome and the United States. They included 17 Americans (plus a baby), 13 Japanese, four Italians, four French, three Indians, two Iranians, two Israelis, two Sri Lankans, an Australian and a Canadian. The nationalities of 30 other passengers and the nine crew members were not immediately known at the time. Reuters reported a total of 37 Americans aboard. The crash occurred about 50 nautical miles west of Cephalonia, Greece.
In Beirut, it was reported that a Palestinian youth organization claimed it had put a guerrilla on the plane with a bomb. However, a spokesman for TWA said sabotage was "highly unlikely." Later, the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the plane was indeed destroyed by a bomb hidden in the cargo hold, which caused structural failure resulting in uncontrollable flight.
Suspicion has fallen on Abu Nidal and his terror organization. This was the first known instance of a young Arab boarding an American plane in a suicide mission.
In January 2009, the Associated Press published an investigation saying that Khalid Duhham Al-Jawary, responsible for the 1973 New York City bomb plot, was linked to the bombing of TWA Flight 841.